Maaike Blancke

Olly Ceulenaere was at the bottom of his hotel-school cooking class. But the pull of the kitchen was strong, and he learned the craft in top restaurants – the hard way. The more experience he gained, the more he understood: it’s not about what you can do with a truffle. It’s about the experience you offer your guests. Today, he does that with effortless ease at Publiek in Ghent. He never asked for a Michelin star, but he got one anyway.

The bioanthropologist Jessica Palmer directs the lab at the Ghent Archaeological Science Centre. Together with her colleagues, she examined the bones of a woman who had rested for more than a thousand years in front of the entrance to St Peter's Church in Ghent. Was this Judith, the first countess of Flanders? 

Steven Vanderputten is a professor of history at Ghent University. He conducts scholarly research into our medieval society and culture, with a predilection for the period from the 9th to the 12th century – a period he is definitely does not wish to call ‘the dark Middle Ages’.